U.S. patent number 4,826,123 [Application Number 07/044,756] was granted by the patent office on 1989-05-02 for adjustable keyboard support.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Knoll International, Inc.. Invention is credited to Eric J. Armstrong, Philip J. Campbell, James B. Eldon, Bruce R. Hannah, Harold A. Smith.
United States Patent |
4,826,123 |
Hannah , et al. |
May 2, 1989 |
Adjustable keyboard support
Abstract
An adjustable keyboard support is disclosed constituted by a
rear housing that pivotally supports one end of a parallel link
mechanism. A front housing is carried by the other end of the
parallel link mechanism, and pivotally supports a keyboard mounting
plate. The parallel link mechanism permits upward and downward
movement of the keyboard mounting plate without change in the tilt
of that plate. A gas cylinder mechanism coupled to the front
housing changes the vertical position of the same, and a slide
plate adjustment mechanism provides forward and backward movement
of the keyboard mounting plate.
Inventors: |
Hannah; Bruce R. (Cold Spring,
NY), Eldon; James B. (Barto, PA), Armstrong; Eric J.
(Pennsburg, PA), Smith; Harold A. (Emmaus, PA), Campbell;
Philip J. (Bethlehem, PA) |
Assignee: |
Knoll International, Inc. (New
York, NY)
|
Family
ID: |
26721963 |
Appl.
No.: |
07/044,756 |
Filed: |
May 1, 1987 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
|
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494810 |
May 16, 1983 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
248/248;
248/281.11 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47B
21/0314 (20130101); F16M 11/048 (20130101); F16M
11/2064 (20130101); F16M 11/2092 (20130101); F16M
11/24 (20130101); A47B 2021/0321 (20130101); A47B
2021/0328 (20130101); A47B 2021/0335 (20130101); A47B
2021/0342 (20130101); A47B 2210/15 (20130101); F16M
2200/044 (20130101); F16M 2200/063 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A47B
21/03 (20060101); A47B 21/00 (20060101); F16M
11/12 (20060101); F16M 11/02 (20060101); A47G
029/02 () |
Field of
Search: |
;248/248.1,280.1,648,662,670,278,279,281.1,345.1,172 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Machado; Reinaldo P.
Assistant Examiner: Lechok Eley; Sarah A.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: O'Rourke; Thomas A.
Parent Case Text
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 494,810 filed on May
16, 1983, now abandoned.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. An adjustable keyboard support comprising a rear housing for
pivotally supporting one end of a parallel link mechanism, a front
housing carried by the other end of said parallel link mechanism
and pivotally supporting a keyboard mounting plate said keyboard
mounting plate having resilient bumpers mounted on said keyboard
mounting plate adapted to clamp a keyboard to permit the keyboard
mounting plate to securely mount different size keyboards, said
parallel link mechanism permitting upward and downward movement of
said keyboard mounting plate to any position desired by an operator
without change in the tilt of the keyboard plate, and a gas
cylinder mechanism coupled to said front housing for changing the
vertical position of said keyboard plate.
2. An adjustable keyboard support as in claim 1, in which said rear
housing is carried by a slide plate adapted to be mounted on the
underside of a work surface for sliding movement with respect
thereto.
3. An adjustable keyboard support as in claim 2, in which said rear
housing is pivotally carried by said slide plate for at least about
180.degree. of movement about a first axis generally perpendicular
to said slide plate.
4. An adjustable keyboard support as in claim 3, in which said
front housing pivotally supports said keyboard mounting plate for
at least about 90.degree. of movement about a second axis generally
parallel to said first axis.
5. An adjustable keyboard support as in claim 4, including a tilt
adjustment mechanism mounting said keyboard mounting plate to said
front housing and permitting adjustment of the tilt of said
keyboard mounting plate.
6. An adjustable keyboard support as in claim 2, in which said
slide plate includes bearing blocks at the sides thereof, and a
slide track on each side of said slide plate carrying
7. An adjustable keyboard support comprising a rear housing for
pivotally supporting one end of a parallel link mechanism, a front
housing carried by the other end of said parallel link mechanism
and pivotally supporting a keyboard mounting plate said keyboard
mounting plate having at least one raised edge and having a
clamping means adapted to clamp at least two opposite ends of a
keyboard to permit the keyboard mounting plate to securely mount
different size keyboards, said parallel link mechanism permitting
upward and downward movement of said keyboard mounting plate to any
position desired by an operator without change in the tilt of the
keyboard plate, and a gas cylinder mechanism coupled to said front
housing for changing the vertical position of said keyboard
plate.
8. An adjustable keyboard support comprising a rear housing for
pivotally supporting one end of a parallel link mechanism, a front
housing carried by the other end of said parallel link mechanism
and pivotally supporting a keyboard mounting plate said keyboard
mounting plate having at least one raised edge and having a
clamping means adapted to clamp at least two opposite ends of a
keyboard to permit the keyboard mounting plate to securely mount
different size keyboards, said parallel link mechanism permitting
upward and downward movement of said keyboard mounting plate to any
position desired by an operator without change in the tilt of the
keyboard mounting plate, said keyboard mounting plate having a tilt
adjustment mechanism permitting adjustment of the tilt of said
keyboard mounting plate and a gas cylinder mechanism coupled to
said front housing for changing the vertical position of said
keyboard mounting plate.
9. An adjustable keyboard support according to claim 8 wherein said
parallel link mechanism is capable of 360.degree. pivotal movement
about the rear housing.
10. An adjustable keyboard support according to claim 8 wherein
said keyboard mounting plate is capable of 360.degree. pivotal
movement.
Description
BACKGROUND AND BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an adjustable keyboard support and is
particularly directed to providing an adjustable support for a
computer keyboard that may be stored under a work surface and moved
from beneath that surface to a working position at any convenient
orientation of the keyboard desired by an operator.
Supports for adjustably positioning a separable keyboard are known.
One is schematically described in "The New Work-Station" by John
Pile in Interiors, Nov. 1982, pages 92, 93. The keyboard support
disclosed in that article moves through a range of tilt to suit a
user's needs and also moves up and down, independently of tilt
angle, to bring the keyboard to a desired position. Mechanical
linkages are shown in the schematic illustration in the article,
and thus the user is required manually to move the keyboard support
to all desired positions (raising and lowering). The present
invention, on the other hand, utilizes a gas cylinder mechanism to
provide the motive power in raising the keyboard support. Manual
force is only required in the lowering of the keyboard support.
Additionally, by utilizing a rear housing that is pivotally coupled
to a slide pate that moves in and out on the underside of a work
surface, in conjunction with a front housing that pivotally
supports a keyboard mounting plate, with the front and rear housing
being connected together by a parallel link mechanism that permits
upward and downward movement of the keyboard mounting plate without
change in the tilt of that plate, front and rear translational
movement of the keyboard mounting plate and a change in the angular
orientation thereof at any level of positioning of that mounting
plate is achieved in the present invention.
The invention will be more completely understood by reference to
the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the
appended drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view, looking downwardly, of an adjustable
keyboard support embodying the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view, looking upwardly, of a part
of the keyboard support of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing the details of a
parallel link mechanism incorporated in the adjustable keyboard
support of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is a schematic drawing illustrating the operation of the
parallel link mechanism of FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a part of the adjustable
keyboard support of FIG. 1, showing the details of a slide plate
mechanism incorporated therein.
FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a portion of the
adjustable keyboard support of FIG. 1, showing the details of the
gas cylinder actuating the structure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Referring to FIG. 1, a universal keyboard mount is shown that is
constituted by a keyboard mounting plate 10 having a curled end 10a
that carries a cushion pad 12 thereon. The cushion pad 12 is
adapted to cushion one surface of a keyboard (not shown). The
keyboard mounting plate 10 is carried by a carrier 14 (see also
FIG. 2). The carrier 14 includes upstanding posts 16 which mount a
carrier cushioning section 18 therebetween. The carrier cushioning
section 18 may be formed from a resilient roll 18a mounted about an
innter tube 18b. The cushioning member 18 cushions a surface of the
keyboard that is opposed to the surface that is cushioned by the
cushioning section 12 of the keyboard mounting plate 10.
The keyboard mounting plate 10 and the carrier 14 are held against
each other with relative adjustable positioning by means of studs
20 which depend from the underside of the keyboard mounting plate
10. The studs 20 pass through corresponding slots 22 in the carrier
14. Locking knobs 24 which thread onto the ends of the studs 20 are
tightened to hold securely the mounting plate 10 against the
carrier 14 in any particular position, and are loosened to permit
relative movement of the two cushioning sections 12 and 18 toward
and away from each other by appropriate movement of the studs 20 in
the slots 22.
Bumpers 26 are included which preferably constitute resilient
balls, each mounted upon one end of a rod 28 that is bent to define
an obtuse angle. The other end of each rod is carried by the tubing
18b that forms a support for the resilient cushioning roll 18a.
Each rod 28 is thus moveable along the axis of the tubing 18b, and
is also pivotal about that axis, held in position by set screw 28a.
Thus the resilient bumpers 26 may be moved toward and away from
each other (in a direction generally transverse to that of the
movement of the cushioning sections 12 and 18), and additionally
(by virtue of the pivotal movement) in planes generally
perpendicular to the direction of movement of the bumpers toward
and away from each other. The bumpers accordingly have a freedom of
movement along three orthogonal axes, and hence may be positioned
as desired to protect various sized keyboards which may be mounted
on the mounting plate against damage from impact with adjacent work
surfaces as the mounting plate is moved.
The carrier 14 is advantageously mounted upon a support assembly 30
by means of a bracket 32 carried on the underside of the carrier
14. The bracket 32 is pinned to the assembly 30 by pin 34 (together
with lock rings 36), and relative tilting of the carrier 14 (and
concomitantly the keyboard mounting plate 10) is achieved by a tilt
locking lever 38 which includes a threaded shaft 38a thereon which
passes through slot 40 in bracket 32 and is threaded into a
corresponding threaded hole 42 in the assembly 30. The locking
lever 38 is loosened to permit appropriate tilting of the carrier
14, and this is tightened to maintain the tilt angle of the
mounting plate 10.
The universal keyboard mount described above is an invention of
Bruce R. Hannah, William I. Stephens, George Wilmot and Eric J.
Armstrong, all inventors of a copending U.S. patent application for
UNIVERSAL KEYBOARD MOUNT filed on the same date as this present
application and carried under Docket KII-91.
As shown in FIG. 1, the keyboard mounting plate 10 and the carrier
14 are coupled to a slide plate 50. The sides of the slide plate 50
include spring-loaded bearing blocks 52 that ride in slide tracks
54 of a track plate 56 that may be mounted to the underside of a
work surface. The details of the slide plate 50 and the bearing
blocks 52 are shown in FIG. 5. As noted in that figure, the sides
of the plate 50 are cut out to accomodate the bearing block 52, and
springs 58 provide the spring loading that urge the bearing blocks
against the sides of the tracks 54.
The slide plate 50 and track plate 56 thus provide for movement of
the keyboard mounting plate 10 forwardly and backwardly with
respect to a work surface; Appropriate stops (not shown) may be
included, if desired, to prevent the complete removal of the
bearing blocks 52 out of the tracks 54.
As noted from FIG. 5, the underside of slide plate 50 includes a
stud 60 affixed thereto that passes respectively through an upper
bearing 62, a rear housing 64, a lower bearing 66, and a bearing
plate 68, finally to be threaded onto nut 70 held by lock washer
72. The bearings 62 and 66 provide for pivotal movement of the rear
housing with respect to the slide plate 50 about an axis which is
generally perpendicular to that slide plate, for at least about
180.degree. of pivotal movement and preferably for 360.degree. of
pivotal movement. The importance of this pivotal movement of the
rear housing will be described in more detail below.
Referring to FIG. 2, it will be recalled that the keyboard mounting
plate 10 is ultimately supported by assembly 30. That assembly 30
is in turn coupled to a front housing assembly 74, the details of
which are shown in FIG. 3. Referring to that figure, the front
housing assembly 74 includes, in addition to the support assembly
30, upper and lower bearings 76 and 78 on opposite sides of a front
housing 80. The support assembly 30 includes a stud 82 which
depends downwardly therefrom and passes through these bearings and
front housing, in addition to a bearing plate 84 held by nut 86 and
lock washer 88. The front housing 80 is thus free to pivot with
respect to the support assembly 30. That pivotal movement is
limited by a stop pin 90 that strikes ends 30a and 30b of a
cut-away portion of the plate that constitutes the support assembly
30. The front housing 80 is thus free to pivot about an axis which
is coextensive when the stud 82 for at least about 90.degree. of
movement about that axis. The axis of the stud 82 is parallel to
the axis of pivotal movement of the rear housing 64 described
above. Again, the significance of the pivoting movement of the
front housing will be described in more detail below.
As shown in FIG. 3, a parallel link mechanism couples together the
rear housing 64 and the front housing 80. Specifically, an upper
arm 100 and a lower arm 102 constitute the two links of the
parallel link mechanism. The upper arm 100 is pivotally coupled by
a pivot pin 104 to the rear housing 64. The pivot 104 extends
through holes 106 in the upper arm 100 and holes 108 in the rear
housing 64, and is held in place by clips 110. Similarly, the lower
arm 102 is pivotally coupled to the rear housing 64 by pin 112,
which passes through holes 114 in the lower arm and holes 116 in
the rear housing. The upper arm 100 is pivotally coupled to the
front housing 80 by pin 118, which passes through holes 120 in the
front portion of the upper arm 100 and upper holes 122 in the front
housing 80. The pin 118 is maintained in place by clip 124.
Similarly, the front end of the lower arm 102 is pivotally coupled
to the front housing 80 by pin 126 which passes through holes 128
in the front of the lower arm 102 and lower holes 130 in the front
housing 80. A gas cylinder mechanism 132 completes the coupling of
rear housing 64 to front housing 80. Specifically, gas cylinder 132
is pivotally connected at one end thereof by pin 134 to a rear
portion of the lower arm 102 adjacent to the holes 114. A centering
structure 136 is included on both sides of the plates that
constitute the sides of the lower arm 102 for the purpose of
centering the gas cylinder between those plates. The front end of
the gas cylinder 132 (the moveable piston in the gas cylinder) is
coupled to a bracket 138. That bracket includes holes 140 therein
through which the pin 118 passes. Thus, the moveable piston in the
gas cylinder is coupled to the front housing 80 via the pin
118.
The action of the mechanism coupling the rear housing 64 to the
front housing 80 is best understood by reference to FIG. 4. The
upper arm 100 and lower arm 102 form parallel links. There are two
positions of the keyboard mounting plate 10 shown, namely, a high
position and a low position. Because of the parallel links 100 and
102, and the pivotal connections provided by the pins 104, 112,
118, and 126, the tilt of the keyboard mounting plate 10 remains
constant for all vertical positions of the front housing 80. This
action occurs because the upper arm 100 and lower arm 102 form
constant radii governing the arcuate movement of the pins 118 and
126 coupled to the front housing 80, pivoting about centers
determined by the pins 104 and 112 in the rear housing 64.
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 4 together, the significance of the
various axes of pivotal movement of the rear housing 64 and the
front housing 80 will now be perceived. The rear housing 64 pivots
preferably 360.degree. about the axis 60 (this is the axis of the
same-numbered stud in FIG. 5). Thus the rear housing 64 is free to
pivot about an axis which is generally perpendicular to the slide
plate 50. When it is desired to store the keyboard mounting plate
entirely underneath the work surface, the slide plate 50 may be
moved to its rearwardmost position, and the rear housing 64 pivoted
to the extent necessary to pivot the entire keyboard support plate
assembly underneath the work surface. The pivotal movement of the
front housing 80, on the other hand, about axis 82 (which is the
axis of the stud 82 in FIG. 3) provides for pivotal movement of the
front housing about an axis which is parallel to that of the
pivotal movement of the rear housing 64. This pivotal movement of
the front housing 80 is for the purpose of pivoting the keyboard
mounting plate 10 to any desired position in use. Normally, only
90.degree. of a pivoting movement of the front housing is required,
and for this reason the stop pin 90 is included, as described above
(with respect to FIG. 3). The two angular pivoting movements of the
front and rear housings, together with the forward/backward
movement of the slide plate 50 provide the necessary movement of
the keyboard mounting plate 10 to provide any positioning of that
mounting plate desired by a computer operator.
The gas cylinder mechanism participates in the movement of the
keyboard mounting plate 10 by providing for the raising and
lowering of the front housing 80. With reference to FIG. 6, a gas
cylinder activating rod 160 is included that passes through a hole
162 in the bracket 138. The activating rod 160 is fastened to a cam
164 by means of a set screw 166. Movement of the activating rod 160
moves the cam 164, which includes a dished surface 164a thereon
that bears against activating button 132a of the gas cylinder.
Appropriate movement of the activating rod 160 results in actuation
of the gas cylinder activating button, in turn permitting the
piston in the gas cylinder to move. When the keyboard mounting
plate 10 is in the low position shown in FIG. 4, activation of the
gas cylinder 132 results in the raising of the mounting plate by
outward movement of the piston in the gas cylinder. On the other
hand, when it is desired to lower the keyboard mounting plate 10,
the gas cyliner is activated by appropriate manipulation of the
activating rod 160, and manual force is used to lower the keyboard
mounting plate 10 to the desired position.
By use of a gas cylinder mechanism, upward and downward movement of
the keyboard mounting plate 10 is easily achieved. A cumbersome
spring mechanism normally found in assemblies of this type is
avoided by use of the gas cylinder mechanism, and manual force is
only required in the lowering of the keyboard mounting plate,
upward movement being carried out automatically by the gas cylinder
mechanism. The pivotal movement of the front and rear housings in
connection with the sliding movement of the slide plate together
provide for accurate positioning of the keyboard mounting plate any
number of unlited positions and orientations of that mounting plate
in front of and below a work surface.
It will be appreciated that modifications of the
presently-preferred embodiment described above may be made by those
skilled in the art. Accordingly, this invention should be taken to
be defined by the appended claims.
* * * * *